Dare Me (Henry Bowers x Reader)

Drugs in the Drink

Upon my arrival, Bill is already there. "Should have expected you, Bill." He looks down at his shoes, "IT took a lot from us." I nod in understanding. His brother was such a light in his life.

I look around in memory, "Didn't this place used to be bigger?" Mike scatters around the room, requesting us to follow,  "Yo! Mike, where are you going?" We follow him up to a room away from the main library. A desk, stacks of books, and a bed... Bill and I stare at each other. "Mike, you live here?" Mike nods while scattering around the room, "Yeah. Make yourself at home. You want some water? Yeah, sure." Mike pours us both and out of kindness Bill and I drink.

"You see, memory's the thing. It's the key. It's the key to everything." "If It really does want us back here, don't you think the smartest thing we can do is just get the hell out of Derry?"

"No, no, no. It does want us back. But It doesn't know I know what I know."

"What do you know, Mike?"

"How to kill the shit out of It!" He exclaims, before continuing, "I've read every book. I've talked to every person in this godforsaken town, everybody that would talk to me, anyway, and that's not a long list. But it wasn't enough. I had to know how this all started. How It Started. And It started." Mike reaches behind him retracting a leather tote, type, thing... "HERE." He shoves it in our faces. "What am I looking at, Mike?" "It's an artifact. Early 18th-century Shokopiwah." I look up to Mike, "How'd you get this?" "I found it, in the...No, no, they gave it to me." I stare at him, "Mike..." He crumbles,  "I stole it." I shake my head, "I thought I taught you boys better."

Bill holds up the leather artifact, "You stole it? From Native Americans?" Mike shrugs, "It's complicated." I scoff, "Seems so." I take a step back knocking into the desk, losing my balance, "Whoa."

"They helped me on my journey. They showed me things. A vision." I shake my head, my vison starts to sway, "This, this doesn't feel... right." I glance at the totum and jump. THE CARVINGS ARE COMING TO LIFE! "I feel kind of funky. (Y/n)?" I shake my head, "Not good."

Mike grabs the artifact and shoves it in our faces again, "I need you to see what they showed me.They live outside of Derry. Beyond It's reach. They moved there many years ago. Their holy man, their holy of holies, he took me in. Fed me their sacred Maturin. I started to... To react. All living things must abide by the laws of the shape they inhabit. While I sat there, looking out over the valley, I saw It arrive. I knew that one day, I would have to make you all see." I look down at my water, my vison swaying heavily now. "Mike?" Bill looks over to me just as fucked up. "Mike? Did you put something in our drinks?"

Mike shuffles, guilty, "It's, uh... It's a root." I stare at him, "You drugged us?" "No, it's a root with properties." "Yeah, and mushrooms grow in the fucking ground too." Mike shakes his head, It's just a micro-dose of what the Shokopiwah gave me..." Bill falls to the floor dragging me with him, "Why would you do that?"

"To open my eyes."

I shake my head, "I don't feel real good. Bill?" "Not good!" Mike shoves the totum in our eyes, the figures moving on the artifact , "I need you to look, and you'll see. Open your eyes. Open your eyes. They showed me the past."

A vast land opens in my mind, trees, grass, everything so beautiful...

"Showed me the way It appeared to them." A giant swoops over the village, "They showed me their pain." The monster changes figures, devoring the village, "They showed me how to stop It!" The tribe gatherd around the artifact, shrinking the monster inside and sealing IT away.

"It's over." my vision becoems clear and I unwrap myself from Bill. "It's over. You're okay." I look arond the room catching my breathe. Mike smiles widely, "Did you see it?" I nod, "The Ritual?"

Bill speaks, "The Ritual of Chud?" Mike nods happily, "Yeah, I knew you two... I knew you two would see it." I hold my head still comprehending the vision, "We saw the whole fucking thing, Mike." Mike nods, "That's how we kill It." I throw my hands up, "How are we going to do it? Everybody already said no." Mike shakes his head, "But with you, Bill, they'll listen. This won't work without all of us."

~

"What do you mean that you've seen us all die?" The club descusses, Richie opens his mouth, "Yeah, 'cause I gotta be honest. That's a fucked-up thing to just drop on somebody." Bev stares at the carpet, "Every night since Derry, I've been having these nightmares. People in pain. People dying. People..."

Eddie rolls his eyes, "So, you have nightmares. I have nightmares. People, they have nightmares. But that doesn't mean that your visions are true." "I've watched every single one of us..." She stops. "You've seen every single one of us what?"

"At the place that Stanley wound up. That's how we end." "Okay, how come the rest of us aren't seeing that shit? I mean, what makes her so different?" The door opesn revealing the missing three, Mike, Bill, and (Y/n). "The Deadlights. She was the only one of us that got caught in the Deadlights that day."

"We were all touched by It. Changed. Deep down. Like an infection. Or a virus. A virus. You understand. Slowly growing. That virus, it's been growing for 27 years. This whole time, metastasizing. It just got to Stan first, because..." Richie speaks, saying what everone knew to be true, "He was the weakest."

"Jesus Christ, Rich." He shrugs, "Just saying what everyone else is thinking, man."

Mike continues, "What Beverly sees, it will come to pass. It's what'll happen to all of us, eventually, unless we stop It."

"How the hell are we supposed to do that?" I step up, "The Ritual of Chud." Richie stares at me, "Is that some old strain of weed you use to smoke?" I glare at him, "No. The Shokopiwah. The first ones who fought IT." They have a saying. All living things must abide by the laws of the shape they inhabit."

"A tribal ritual? Are you fucking kidding me, man?" Richie shuts it down, "All right, there's gotta be another way. Okay? This thing comes back, what, every 27 years? Let's just kick the can down the road and do it then." I roll my eyes, "How did you graduate?" Eddie joins informing Rich, "We'll be 70 years old, asshole."

Bev shakes her head, "None of us make it another 20 years, and the way it happens..."

"So, if we don't beat It this cycle, then... We die."

"Horribly." "Yeah, I don't need the "horribly" part." "I didn't say it. She said it. Not me."

Bill stands in the middles, the leader, "All right, guys. Look. I've seen what he's talking about, and it's all true. It's the only way."

Mike starts again, "If we want this ritual to work... We have to remember." "Remember what?" "We don't have much time. His cycle will end soon. And once it does...We're fucked."